Lot 178: 

FINÉ, Oronce (1494-1555). Quadratura circuli. Paris: Simon de Colines, 1544.

2υo (262 x 189mm). Title within a fine criblé border of strapwork ornament, 42 woodcut illustrations and diagrams often decorated with florets; numerous criblé initials. (Some very minor occasional pale spotting.) 18th-century vellum-backed boards. Provenance: Sebastiano li Greci (bookplate); Giovanni Vannucci (bookplate); acquired from Scribner's, 1967.

FIRST EDITION of an interesting scientific treatise in which Finé offers what he believes to be a more precise value of \kp\K; the work attempts to calculate the ratio of circumference to diameter and solve the quadrature of the circle. French mathematician and cartographer Finé was one of the most prolific authors of mathematical books of his age, and he worked in a wide range of mathematical fields, including practical geometry, arithmetic, optics, gnomonics, and astronomy. The work includes several depictions of scientific instruments of his own design.

The majority of the woodcuts are diagrams decorated with florets which are characteristic of Finé's illustration for his own books. "The style of the border is that of the figured border designed by Finé for Colines and first used on the Arithmetica of Martínez Siliceo in September 1526. The block for this 1544 border passed to Michel de Vascosan" (Mortimer). Adams F-479; Mortimer French 229.

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